Lake of the Woods, MN ice report 3-21-09

A long winter is almost over, but there is always time for a late ice trip to Lake of the Woods. 11 of us headed up Thursday looking forward to a good walleye bite. After a few stops on the way up, we pulled into WigWam just in time to grab a burger and watch the Gophers loose. First thing Friday morning we headed out to the Bridges area. We set up in 26-28′ and had pretty steady action all day. Lots of nice walleyes for the fry pan along with a good share of sauger to help fill the limit. A couple bonus jumbo perch made their way home as well. That evening back at WigWam the boys ate well on a meal of fresh fish!

Saturday we were back in the same general area. The fishing was a little slower, but we still all managed to ice some nice fish for the pail. We did get quite a few more jumbo perch. It didn’t seem like there was one hot bait for the trip. The fish were split pretty much 50/50 on jigging spoons and bobber rigs. A plain hook seemed to do best under a bobber while jigging a variety of sppons worked. In fact it seemed like if you changed a spoon you got bite right away as it was new.

The ice conditions were pretty good. You definitly needed an extension or 2 to get through. We were 20+ miles out and there were atvs, snowmobiles and 4×4 trucks all in the same area. By Saturday night the little bit of snow on the lake was melting and getting slushy and wet. Depending n the weather I was thinking about making another run this weekend with the atvs. We didn’t get into the big girls at all, but lots of fish 16-18″. We lost a couple nice fish and ice some eelpout as well that get the blood pumping. A big thanks go out to Tom and the staff at WigWam. Yet another great fishing trip!